Saturday, October 2, 2010

Chinatown Seattle as it appears on October 1, 2010

Seattle Chinatown as it appears on National Day China in poem


Hing Hay Square on an early October Day

Venerable Mike’s noodle shop is closed
                         Opposite the Hing Hay Square nearly empty
The mural dragon of train and agriculture peers down at fallen leaves
It’s autumn in Seattle Chinatown.
                    Still a sojourner with guitar case I sit looking at the Pavilion
                                       Jade table at the center
With  three       missing         stools
      A pigeon flies horizontally across the square

Fewer and fewer inner-city dwellers by the years navigate
these dim sum streets not yet open for commerce
                   A few errant prostitutes and homeless men slink
And shrink               away
A yellow leaf glance my forehead as I sit and write these notes

The sky opens; this is still my home
The green frames of the pavilion; red posts lucky color
Shelter against all but the slanting rain like Pa Kua boxing

Trees looked like inverted pyramids
             A black bird dives at a park bench
It remained a calm day, as if
      Last night had been bled dry!                                       


October 1, 2010  (1949 - 2010)
Koon Woon in Seattle

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